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Gorky Street
The next thing that attracts our attention is the monument to the five-time nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature M. Gorky, established in 1984 on the left in a small square. Nearby is the “Radiohouse” – one of the most bizarre buildings of the Soviet era in Irkutsk, consisting of parts made at different times in more than half a century, but united into a single complex thanks to the talented architect N.N. Belyakov in 1982.
Radiohouse
On the other side of the road are the buildings of the Baikal State University, which opened in Irkutsk in 1930. They are adjoined by a small park, organized here in 2011 and named after Shigeki Mori – the permanent mayor of the Japanese town of Neagari, Ishikawa province, which has twinning relations with the city Shelekhov – an industrial neighbour of Irkutsk. Also he was this mayor who initiated the twinning relationship between Irkutsk and the Japanese city of Kanazawa in 1967.
Park named after Shigeki Mori
After the park, the first wooden house on the right side of the street belonged to a member of the Irkutsk judicial chamber M.S. Stravinsky and served as the building of the vice-consulate of Belgium in Irkutsk from 1914 to 1920. Moreover, the owner of the mansion himself became the first ambassador.
On the same side of the street, at the crossroads, you can see the estate of the mayor V.V. Zharnikov, who went down in history as the creator of the first water supply system in Irkutsk in 1905. An old sculpture “Boy with a Swan” is hiding in the garden which surrounding the house.
Mayor V.V. Zharnikov
On the opposite side of the street there is a small square with a monument to the first modern governor of Irkutsk Y.A. Nozhikov, which was installed in honour of the 75th anniversary of the Irkutsk region in 2012 to replace the sculpture of a dragon that appeared at this place since 2007. It is interesting that earlier this was the place where the bust of M. Gorky was located, until it was destroyed by vandals in 1963.
Monument to the first modern governor of Irkutsk Y.A. Nozhikov
Continuing along this street, on the left we notice two more buildings in the brutalist style, belonging to the talent of V.A. Pavlov. Opposite to them the building of the gynaecological clinic. Further, on the other side of the road, the walls of the famous “House of the Pilots”, created on this place in 1936, where lived the pilot and Hero of Socialist Labour I.N. Sharov (flew over 17 thousand hours). The headquarters of the Central Air Communications Agency is still located here. At the entrance, a few years ago, it was possible to see columns made from gravestones from the Old Jerusalem cemetery.
Closes the Gorky Street “House of Science and Technology” built in 1955 according to the project of N. А. Sergeev on the site of the former passage of A.F. Vtorov, which since 1897 occupied the corner of the block along this street and was considered one of the largest stores in Irkutsk. This richest merchant was the founder of the first “supermarkets” in Russia. His passages were located in all major cities of Russia from Petersburg to Sretensk. Here lived for many years the youngest of two sons of this merchant – Alexander. Unfortunately, the passage completely burned out in December 1917 during the battles on the streets of Irkutsk.
Passage of A.F. Vtorov
Labour Square
We turn left and run into Labour Square, the main dominant of which is the circus building, built in 1964. Irkutsk became the first city in Siberia and on Far East where such a building appeared. Irkutsk residents are longtime fans of such performances. The first circus troupe of a certain Mikoletto visited the city back in 1795, and a permanent wooden building appeared on Tikhvin Square thanks to the Italian entrepreneur Soulier in 1868.
Earlier, starting from the 1780s, this place was occupied by Ivanovskaya Square with trading rows of Melochny (“Trivial”) Bazaar, where people traded mainly in agricultural goods brought from the villages. Behind the circus building, you can still see the shops of the Old City Public Administration, which have been occupied by a mica factory since 1929 (now Sverdlova Str., 41).
Trading rows of Melochny (“Trivial”) Bazaar
Here from the house of the merchant V.A. Ostapin on June 22, 1879, the Great Fire began, which destroyed the best part of Irkutsk. The flames blazed for three days and swallowed up the entire city center. Burnt out 75 blocks with 105 stone and 3418 wooden buildings. The fire took away practically all public, educational and state institutions, many temples, museum; also destroyed the entire city archive with unique documents.
Map of the Great Fire in Irkutsk
However, one of the oldest buildings in Irkutsk is still preserved on the other side of the square – the building of the hotel “Moscow Courtyard” created in 1821 at the expense of the merchant N.P. Trapeznikov, and donated to the city for free use of the City Court in 1887 by his grand-nephew, which already known to us as V.P. Sukachev. The justice authorities are here to this day.
Moscow Courtyard
At the end of the ensemble of the square, the building of the central telegraph, built in 1932 by the architect N.N. Baikov. It is located on the site of the former house of I. A. Nemchinov, where in November 1903 the main telegraph office of Irkutsk was transferred. Today the representative office of OJSC “Rostelecom” is located here.
Main telegraph office of Irkutsk
There is an illuminated fountain in the center of the square. Earlier in its place was located one of the most picturesque stone chapels of Irkutsk – in the name of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God. It was installed here in 1892 by the architect V.A. Kudelsky at the expense of the Irkutsk industrialist and philanthropist A.M. Sibiryakov.
Chapel in the name of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God
Noteworthy is the nearby best monument in Russia to the famous film director L.I. Gaidai, established here in 2012. For a talented cinematographer, Irkutsk has become a fateful city. Here he graduated from school No. 42 (now Lyceum No. 36 of JSC “Russian Railways”), volunteered for the front, returned injured, received his first theatrical experience and decided to become an actor. In addition, L.I. Gaidai wrote his first script, which brought him worldwide fame for the film “Dog Barbos and Unusual Cross”, when had found a play of S.I. Oleinik in the attic of his parents’ house in Irkutsk in 1961. It is the scene from this film that is shown in the composition of the monument designed by S.B. Demkov.
Monument to the famous film director L.I. Gaidai
Sverdlov Street
Well, and we continue to move along Sverdlov Street, in the past it bore the name of an outstanding merchant, philanthropist and mayor V.N. Basnin. Today only the library wing, where the “Museum of Communications” is located, and also a small house facing the main street, remained from his family estate. The latter is one of the oldest stone residential buildings in the city and was built in 1801, but lost its second floor after the Great Fire.
V.N. Basnin’s estate
Since 1834, almost a third of this quarter was occupied by the Basnin’s Garden with greenhouses, the collection of which was formed by the best expert of Asian plants among his contemporaries N.S. Turchaninov. However, the fire element did not spare it either. Today in its place is the school No. 11, built in 1915 according to the project of K.W. Mital. The graduates of this institution were the Hero of the Soviet Union A.S. Bogdanov, cosmonaut A.A. Ivanishin, pianist D.L. Matsuev and many other famous scientists and public figures.
Basnin’s Garden
Right behind the school is the building of the former hotel “Commercial Courtyard”, which opened here in 1902. After the revolution and up to the 1970s, it housed a dormitory for Irkutsk theatre workers, and during the WWII the actors of Moscow Satire Theater and Kiev Opera Theater lived here. Today it occupied by various departments and committees of the Irkutsk administration.
Hotel “Commercial Courtyard”
Opposite there is a one-storey house where lived the famous explorer of the Eastern Sayan Mountains and the merchant S.P. Peretolchin. Immediately behind it is the small building of the poorhouse of the Tikhvin Church, adjoining against the walls of the “Vostsibugol” building – the only construction that has survived from that magnificent temple.
2nd Khaminov’s gymnasium for girls
On the opposite side of the road, the department of humanitarian and aesthetic education of the Pedagogical Institute of Irkutsk State University, which is located in the building of the former 2nd Khaminov’s gymnasium for girls, which opened here in 1912. Here at the school of red commanders for four months in 1920 studied the future founder of Mongolia D. Sukhe-Bator, after whom named this street. In 1935, according to the project of K.W. Mital, a “party activist house” was added to the gymnasium building, which today also occupied by ISU.
Zhelyabov Quarter
We turn right to the main merchant street of Irkutsk, named today in honour of A.I. Zhelyabov who was one of the organizers of the assassination of Emperor Alexander II. In the past, it bore the name of famous merchant of the 1st guild, twice elected mayor and patron of the arts K.N. Trapeznikov. There are many beautiful merchant mansions along the street.
Merchant of the 1st guild K.N. Trapeznikov
First on the left is the magnificent house of A.F. Vtorov with openwork monograms “AB”, meaning the initials of the owner, built in the neo-russian style according to the project of the famous theatre architect V.A. Schroeter in 1897. The owners moved out of the mansion back in 1913, and already on October 29, 1917, the first All-Siberian Congress of Soviets took place there, and a committee of Central Siberia was elected. Since 1937, the building has housed the “Palace of Children and Youth Creativity”, which has brought up a whole galaxy of talents from the poet M.D. Sergeev to pianist D.L. Matsuev.
House of A.F. Vtorov
The magnificent mansion is adjoined by a shopping building, which was built for the merchant N.S. Chupalov back in 1801, according to A.I. Losev, but it was bought by the family of Vtorov. After it is a house of the Soviet era, built in 1951, overlooks Labour Square. It adjoins the mansion of the 1st guild merchant I.S. Dubnikov, whose estate occupied almost the entire block in the past.
1st guild merchant A.F. Vtorov
We dive to the left into a short lane and freeze in front of the walls of a magnificent castle with towers and “Stars of David” in the frieze. It is easy to guess that this is the house of the head of the Jewish community of Irkutsk I.M. Feinberg. The mansion was built according to the project of the city architect A.I. Kuznetsov in 1902. Since then, the house has been occupied by many organizations from the construction management of the Circum-Baikal Railway to the art museum and college, which is now located there. During the civil war in Russia, the units of the Red Army were formed here and also worked famous commanders S.G. Lazo and A.A. Taube.
On the right, through the branches of the trees, you can see the sculpture “Muse”, which was installed on the 300th anniversary of the assignment of the status of the city to Irkutsk in 1986 opposite the building of the Irkutsk Regional Children’s School of Arts. By the way, here studied until 1990 the People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, virtuoso pianist D.L. Matsuev. Thanks to this man, since 2004, every September in Irkutsk, the festival of classical music “Stars on Baikal” has been held. The repertoire of the musical theatre in the capital of Eastern Siberia at this time resembles the posters of the best concert halls in the world.
Virtuoso pianist D.L. Matsuev
Directly behind the school of arts placed a small wooden house of mechanics Karasev, where in 1909 illegally lived the frustrated head of the Soviet Union S.M. Kirov. He spent six months in Irkutsk and during this time changed 12 addresses. His underground work led to numerous strikes by railroad workers in 1910.
S.M. Kirov
Opposite is the exhibition center named after the Irkutsk artist V.S. Rogal, which opened here in 1999 and is often used for various thematic exhibitions, so this is one of the most dynamically developing art museums in Irkutsk. In the past at this place was a small wooden house, where in 1901 was born one of the greatest documentary filmmakers of the XX century – M.I. Romm.
Exhibition center named after the Irkutsk artist V.S. Rogal
At the next crossroads, we turn right onto the street named after the founder of the squadron of anarchists and partisan movement in Eastern Siberia during the civil war, N.A. Kalandarishvili. At the corner of the street (Khalturina, 8/1) you can still see the house where he lived. He was visited several times by such people as one of the founders of Mongolia and the head of the guerrilla movement in Western Siberia B.Z. Shumyatsky, as well as the commander of the troops of the Far Eastern Republic I.P. Uborevich. In many ways, the Mongolian state was created in this house.
Founder of the squadron of anarchists in Siberia N.A. Kalandarishvili
The famous “Zhelyabov” wooden quarter begins from this lane. In this part of Irkutsk, an entire area of historical buildings has been preserved almost in its original form. On the left is the one-story wing of the estate of the impoverished merchant Vyazmin on Kalandarishvili Street meet us first. All of its buildings are designed in a classic style.
We turn left and find ourselves at the end of the 19th century. On the right, across the street is Orlova’s pink mansion, upholstered in rustic wood. Continue moving along Zhilyabov Street, on the left we notice the magnificent greenish carved house of Lavrentiev, which was rented out for the needs of the gymnasium for boys of the Russian Gentry Assembly since 1906.
House of Lavrentiev
Behind it is Ivanov’s mansion painted in red lead with an apartment building. At the end of XIX century here lived son of the main fur trader in Siberia and the first director of Irkutsk Drama Theatre I.B. Patushinsky.
He was followed by the beige estate of the explorer of the Aleutian Islands and one of the leaders of Russian America A.P. Ocheredin (st. Zhelyabova, 25a). Here we turn right into the narrow Pugachev lane.
We are greeted by the recently renovated house of the merchant V. Posokhov, where the hotel of the same name is located today. Behind it is the modest but oldest grey estate of Kolchenov with an outbuilding and a barn built in the 1860s.
Mutual Insurance Society im Irkutsk
The lane ends up with a long brick building of the warehouse of the Mutual Insurance Society built in the 1880s. At the crossroads let’s turn left and go to the next intersection, opposite which is the Intermunicipal Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia “Irkutskoye”, which is easy to identify by the retro police car standing in the exhibit to the right of the entrance.
Let’s turn left here again, going around the two wooden houses of the Dobrokhotova estate. After them you can see an inconspicuous beige house, where in 1902 was born the famous constructor of military helicopters N.I. Kamov. By the way, shortly after his birth, this house was visited by polar explorer A.V. Kolchak.
House, where was born the constructor of helicopters N.I. Kamov
The opposite side of the street is occupied by a residential building built in 1987 in the brutalist style according to the project of V.A. Pavlova. At the intersection with Zhelyabov Street on the left, is Michurin’s blue estate with store.
Further, on the Dekabr’skikh Sobytiy Street attention is drawn to Shipunov estate with a stone first floor located on the right. After it is the former Yakovlev‘s apartment building with an arms shop.
Michurin’s estate with store
But more attention attracts the huge stone mansion in poor condition on the other side of the intersection. This is the estate of famous Irkutsk merchants and benefactors known as Medvednikovs, after whom the modern Khalturin Street was once named. They were the founders of the first bank in the history of Irkutsk, as well as the first gymnasium for girls in Siberia. The building itself was created back in 1795 according to the project of A.I. Losev and now requires immediate restoration.
Here we turn right on Khalturin Street in order to admire the mansion of the city architect A.P. Artyushkov in a classic style (Khalturina st., 21), which was recently restored. The street, named after the author of the terrorist attack in the Winter Palace in 1880 S.N. Khalutrin, ends at the fence of the shopping center “Fortuna”.
Mansion of the city architect A.P. Artyushkov
In the past, all trading floors here were occupied by the firstborn of mechanical engineering in the Irkutsk region – the heavy machinery plant named after V.V. Kuybyshev. It arose in this part of the city in 1930 on the basis of E. Khanov’s transport workshops, where military transport was repaired and produced for the needs of Siberia and the Far East. After the revolution, the main profile of the enterprise was the production of gold mining equipment. In 1968, the world’s largest river scoop dredge (length 236 m, width 50 m, height 54 m, weight 10,300 tons) was created here. Totally 184 dredges were produced, which are currently used in 17 countries of the world.
The world’s largest river scoop dredge
In addition, the plant created equipment that is now installed on almost all blast furnaces of the former Soviet Union. Not to mention that the largest plants of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy in Russia are equipped with semi-continuous casting machines manufactured by IHMP. Although only two workshops remain of the former greatness, today the enterprise is being revived. In 2012 it received an order to manufacture metal structures for the cosmodrome “Vostochny”.
Immediately behind the former buildings of IHMP Ushakovka River begins – another waterway of Irkutsk. Initially it was called Ida, but in 1681 the merchants brothers Ushakovs built a mill on it and they began to be called by their last name. In the past, it caused a lot of trouble for the city by floods, and its mouth stretched for 400 m. However, today the river is unrecognizable – it has become very shallow, the water is not drinkable, and the hydrogen sulphide springs, which made its waters curative in the past, were filled up during the development of the quarry inside the city.
Ushakovka River
We are crossing Ushakovka River along the Znamensky bridge, which appeared near the mouth by 1868 and find ourselves in the suburb of Marat. Once upon a time at this place was the building of the Admiralty, which located in Irkutsk from 1754 to 1839. and managed the Pacific Fleet, as well as subsequently the affairs of Russian America. At that time, the capital of Eastern Siberia already had its own navigation school and shipyards; factories for the production of ropes, shipbuilding materials, anchors; there was a spinning mill, a resin factory, hemp shops and much more.
Admiralty in Irkutsk
Monastery of Icon of Our Lady of the Sign
We go around the transport ring around the “Admiralty Grove” and arrive at the complex of the oldest nunnery in the Angara region, founded here in the name of Icon of Our Lady of the Sign in 1689. Despite its remoteness, the monastery has always attracted a lot of attention. In 1708 a first Russian Emperor Peter the Great personally sent the Gospel to here, which is still preserved in the monastery in a heavy silver frame. In 1741 the daughter of the favourite of the Peter’s court A.P. Volynsky – Anna, was forced to spent here about six months. As gratitude for the care shown to her here she presented the altar gospel.
Nunnery in the name of Icon of Our Lady of the Sign
The first to meet us is the only monument in Russia to the admiral and Supreme Leader of Russian Empire A.V. Kolchak, which was installed here on the 130th anniversary of his birth on November 4, 2004 according to the project of V.M. Klykov and at the expense of the famous Irkutsk criminal authority S.V. Andreev.
Monument to admiral A.V. Kolchak
Irkutsk was a fateful city for A.V. Kolchak. He was here six times (1902, 1903, 1904, 1911, 1918, 1920). Firstly, he was married in Irkutsk on March 5, 1904 in St. Charalambos church on his only wife S.F. Omirova, who came to Verkhoyansk for him from St. Petersburg. From here, right after the wedding, he went to war with Japan, crossing Lake Baikal on foot along the ice railway. Finally on February 7, 1920 A.V. Kolchak was shot in the Irkutsk prison castle, and his body was thrown into an ice-hole of the Angara River, where the nuns of the Monastery of Icon of Our Lady of the Sign took water. Therefore, the location of the monument is not accidental: opposite the mouth of the Ushakovka River at the intersection with the former Yakutsk Tract (nowdays Rabochego Shtaba street), along which A.V. Kolchak first entered Irkutsk in 1902, returning from an expedition to search for Sannikov Land (a phantom island in the Arctic Ocean).
Admiral A.V. Kolchak
Every year, the court hearings do not subside with the demand to dismantle the monument to the “tyrant and executioner”. However, it is worth recalling that whole world polar expeditions to this day are carried out according to the methods developed by A.V. Kolchak. It was not without reason that he was the fourth person in history to be awarded the Konstantine gold medal – the highest award conferred by Russian Geographical Society.
Constantine Medal of IRGS
In addition, without his participation in the Collegium of the Naval General Staff, as well as a talented strategy for mining the Baltic, the WWI would have ended in defeat for Russia already in the summer of 1915, when Germany brought down all the power of its fleet. And thanks to his command of Black Sea Fleet (he was the youngest admiral among the warring countries) the Turks forever forgot the entrance to Black Sea. If only for this reasons the monument must be preserved.
A.V. Kolchak on the expedition
But we will continue our journey and visit the territory of Monastery of Icon of Our Lady of the Sign, where there is a small but famous cemetery, which was almost completely destroyed after the creation of the first hydro-airport in the history of Siberia in 1928 on the Angara River. Our Lady of the Sign Cathedral itself, built back in 1762. But during the years of Soviet power it was taken to the aircraft workshop, and the territory of the cemetery was razed to the ground. Despite all the changes, it was possible to find and even preserve some of the most significant burials.
Znamensky Necropolis
Right at the entrance we meet the grave of the Decembrist V.A. Bechasnov – one of the few who stayed in Siberia of his own will after the amnesty. Left in the corner of the front garden you can see the grave of N.A. Panov – the only of the rebels who led the grenadier detachment to Senate Square on December 14, 1825 and surrounded the Winter Palace – he was 22 years old at that moment. Opposite him was buried P.A. Mukhanov, who was not a participant in the main events of the Decembrist Uprising but paid for the intention to kill the emperor by exile to Siberia. He only a little did not live up to the amnesty and before his wedding after moving to a settlement in Irkutsk.
Decembrist V.A. Bechasnov
The Decembrists may be treated differently, but the feat of their wives can be considered only in one way. Only 11 women (out of 23 marrieds) followed the 121 Decembrists exiled to Siberia. And the first of them was buried in this cemetery – this is Princess E.I. Trubetskaya. As the heir to one of the richest families of France, she was the wife of Colonel S.P. Trubetskoy – the manque dictator of the Russian Republic and the head of the uprising. She did not live less than two years before the amnesty and died in Irkutsk in 1854 – the whole Irkutsk buried her. The feat had a miraculous effect on this woman: being childless in health, she gave birth to her first child only here in Siberia – that was her daughter Alexandra, and then six more children. Three of them rest next to their mother under a small stone cube behind the gravestone to E.I. Trubetskaya. Her husband managed to return to central Russia after the amnesty, and soon moved the four surviving children out of here.
Princess E.I. Trubetskaya
In addition to old burials, you can see modern ones here. Further on the left we will see the place where the buried “conscience of Russia” V.G. Rasputin who is the last “village writer”, public figure and creator of the festival “Days of Russian spirituality and culture ‘Shining of Russia’”. He died in Moscow on March 14, 2015, several hours before his 78th birthday. Novels of V.G. Rasputin “Farewell to Matera”, “Live and Remember”, “French Lessons” are immortal works of Russian literature and are taught in the school curriculum. This writer has no connections with the famous family friend of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II G.E. Rasputin, since he was killed in 1916 and his only son Dmitry died in 1933 and could not be the father of this man of letters, who was born in 1937.
V.G. Rasputin
Behind the grave of the famous writer, you can see a strange monument resembling a tree trunk with a chopped off top, branches and roots. This is the grave of the honourary citizen of Irkutsk, the 1st guild merchant of Shuya and Irkutsk, the gold miner and tea trader V.F. Kolygin, who left no heirs, since all of his five children died in infancy.
Time to visit the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign, which is one of two churches in Irkutsk, where the original iconostasis has been partially preserved. The church was re-painted, but already by Soviet artists, what immediately catches the eye.
Original iconostasis of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign
The main treasure of the monastery is a feretory with the relics of St. Innocent of Irkutsk, the first saint of Eastern Siberia. He was born not here, but in Malorussia (modern Ukraine) near Chernigov in 1682. He received a good theological education, which helped him, after being tonsured a monk, to get a teaching position at the first school at the history of Russia called Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy in 1714. There he met Peter I, who took him to his fleet on the ship “Samson”.
St. Innocent
